EU team off to Middle East, hoping for Gaza truce

(BRUSSELS) - European foreign ministers set off Sunday for the Middle East where they hope to persuade Israeli and Palestinian leaders to move towards a humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, officials said.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose nation took over the EU presidency on New Year's Day, will go to the region with French and Swedish counterparts plus EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

"We are going to discussing the situation," Schwarzenberg's spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova told AFP on Saturday.

"There is no concrete message yet. We are going to listen to our partners and we will see what we can do to obtain a ceasefire again in the region."

The European Union -- the biggest foreign donor to the Palestinian territories -- is concerned about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip after more than a week of Israeli air strikes.

The foreign ministers will be seeking hard information -- not least from aid agencies on the ground -- about how much help is needed and what supplies are actually getting into Gaza.

"We want to find out what are the possibilities for humanitarian aid" amid conflicting reports on the situation, said Opletalova by telephone from the Czech capital Prague.

The key day for the tour, which will begin Sunday in Cairo, is Monday when the Europeans will meet in Jerusalem with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Jewish state's foreign and defence ministers.

From there they will go to the West Bank town of Ramallah, seat of the government of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be making his own separate trip to the region, will also attend the meetings in Ramallah with Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad.

Sarkozy embarks on his two-day, four-nation tour of the Middle East on Monday, hoping to rally support for a ceasefire in Gaza which was launched last month when France still help the rotating EU presidency.

Since Israel unleashed Operation Cast Lead on December 27 in response to consistent rocket attacks from Gaza, at least 436 Palestinians have been reported killed and 2,290 wounded.

At least 75 of those killed have been children, according to emergency services inside Gaza.

Concerns are rising over the humanitarian situation in one of the world's poorest and most densely populated places, where the vast majority of people depend on foreign aid.

"The goal is an immediate ceasefire and especially a humanitarian truce. That's what we're going to ask Israel and we hope they'll accept," said Spanish Miguel Angel Moratinos this week.

Israeli officials have said they could consider international calls for a pause in fighting to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. But both they and Hamas, which controls Gaza, have rebuffed appeals for a lasting truce.

Euroepan Commission spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann said the EU foreign ministers' trip was a concrete example of the involvement of the 27-nation European Union in the Middle East.

"We have always said we are an actor in the Middle East and we want to do that," she said. "Us going there is a manifestation of that."

Other European officials said the European Union is keen to show show leadership as the United States awaits the inauguration on January 20 of Barak Obama as its next president.

The French, Czech and Swedish foreign ministers represent the past, present and future EU presidencies. All 27 EU foreign ministers are likely to discuss Gaza when they meet in Prague next Thursday.